NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) Stock Price Down 2.7% – Should You Sell?

Shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) dropped 2.7% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $142.46 and last traded at $142.64. Approximately 71,765,297 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 396,215,688 shares. The stock had previously closed at $146.67.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on NVDA. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NVIDIA from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of NVIDIA in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of NVIDIA from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $164.15.

NVIDIA Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 4.10, a quick ratio of 3.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company’s 50-day moving average is $134.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.48 trillion, a P/E ratio of 55.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.66.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 20th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.12. NVIDIA had a return on equity of 114.83% and a net margin of 55.69%. The company had revenue of $35.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 93.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NVIDIA Co. will post 2.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NVIDIA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.03%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. NVIDIA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 1.57%.

NVIDIA announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $50.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the computer hardware maker to reacquire up to 1.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at NVIDIA

In other news, CEO Jen Hsun Huang sold 120,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.33, for a total value of $12,639,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 75,895,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,994,108,405.88. The trade was a 0.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Mark A. Stevens sold 155,000 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $132.27, for a total value of $20,501,850.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,100,117 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,071,402,475.59. The trade was a 1.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,156,270 shares of company stock worth $254,784,327 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NVIDIA

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 52.2% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 38,290 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $34,597,000 after purchasing an additional 13,135 shares during the last quarter. Capital Square LLC purchased a new stake in NVIDIA during the first quarter valued at about $266,000. Verus Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 13.5% in the first quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC now owns 34,637 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $31,297,000 after buying an additional 4,113 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of NVIDIA by 9.8% in the first quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 1,189 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $1,074,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Delta Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 0.3% during the first quarter. Delta Financial Advisors LLC now owns 8,248 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $7,453,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. 65.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation provides graphics and compute and networking solutions in the United States, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and internationally. The Graphics segment offers GeForce GPUs for gaming and PCs, the GeForce NOW game streaming service and related infrastructure, and solutions for gaming platforms; Quadro/NVIDIA RTX GPUs for enterprise workstation graphics; virtual GPU or vGPU software for cloud-based visual and virtual computing; automotive platforms for infotainment systems; and Omniverse software for building and operating metaverse and 3D internet applications.